21st Annual Conference – PFI/PPP Projects – are they Working?

As a starting point for the MPA’s 21st Annual Conference, we commissioned a study on PFI and PPP from Henley Management College, which forms the subject of the first presentation after the keynote address. The aim of the conference is not simply to answer the question of whether PFI/PPP projects are working but to focus on better delivery and more effective performance. Knowing where the weaknesses
lie will help clarify the solutions.

By 1997 PFI was already establishing itself (it had been around as a potential instrument for 15 years) and had become very much part of the culture of the industry, receiving great encouragement from the incoming Labour government. The strengths of PFI are that it can provide a total solution, but if it is to work, the different interests contributing to a major project have to be integrated into a proper partnership. A
holistic approach to total solutions is at the heart of PFI.

The 21st Annual Conference can learn from the present and past in order to help PPI and PPP projects go more positively into the future, benefiting from an exchange of knowledge and experience and taking the best from of existing practices.